We just keep getting luckier and luckier. It seems that Iris (our hostess) is second cousin to a former Atlanta City Planner who has agreed to take us on a tour of Atlanta, his city, the city he helped plan and build.
What a day this has been. We met cousin Leon at T R's, a funky Atlanta restaurant known for its Toucan, very hippy style decor, and holistic food. Our quinoa & vegetable salads with roast chicken pieces were yummy--we felt healthier just eating them. Leon lives about 100 feet away so the next stop was his condo, on the 18th floor of a new Atlanta high rise--the entire sky line and thousands of trees filled the landscape from his picture perfect living room window.
And then it was off to tour the city. We learned about Atlanta's neighborhoods, from the posh side of town with its 5 acre rolling home sites, to the upscale modern Buckhead. We viewed the 1996 Olympic sites and learned about the Olympics' impact on Atlanta (good), about the personalities involved in the city planning and building, the historic centers. Leon told us about underground Atlanta and its shops and citizens--literally below street level, not secretive.
The mansions in Atlanta, and there are many of them, abound. Beverly Hills looks nouveau riche in comparison. We learned that the preponderance of large homes is due to the Southern way of entertaining, at home, not in restaurants.
Lots of corporate headquarters fuel the city, and plenty of old Southern money as well. The Jewish population is vast and supports Jewish Day schools, large synagogues within the city and in the suburbs, and prominent citizens who contribute to the arts and everywhere.
George is one of the 3 granite states and there's plenty of granite in the buildings, but the dense granite also makes it difficult to build down, as in deep parking garages. Leon helped push through an electric trolley system currently being built and scheduled to open in April 2014 with its first miles of working track and modern, nearly silent, electric trolleys.
Atlanta Historical Society houses one of the largest collections of Civil War artifacts as well as the Swan House built in 1928 with swan motifs throughout.
After a fabulous afternoon with this wonderful guide, we heading back to the DeKalb market for a fresh dinner and some shopping. I could move to Atlanta just to be able to shop at this market. There wasn't a single food stuff I couldn't fine. Cases of cheeses, dozens of different pates, trays of freshly made sausage links filled with lamb, beef, chicken, seasonings, and in lamb casings (Halal for the Muslim population). There's 50 feet of fresh spices packed on the premises as well as more fresh sprouts than I knew existed (dandelion sprouts?) And then the shelves of fresh tea leaves, averaging about $1.50 for 4 ounces. I could go on, and we did control ourselves since we are traveling and couldn't really shop, but I lost it at the bakery. YUM!
Tomorrow we are off to Savannah after a stop in Madison to see an ante-bellum town. We just added this stop to our itinerary so who knows what we'll find. We certainly have done extremely well. Iris was a marvelous hostess, even though she doesn't generally like house guests, and we've had a fabulous time in Atlanta--oh, we never did get to tour Coca Cola or CNN.
(I'm struggling because I haven't been able to figure out how to upload photos. There's a way to upload from Picassa, but Stu saves the photos in iphoto. Anyone know? Please help.)
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